DGA discusses Productivity Commission’s Final Report at Roundtable with Government’s new Taskforce

DGA discusses Productivity Commission’s Final Report at Roundtable with Government’s new Taskforce

DGA discusses Productivity Commission’s Final Report at Roundtable with Government’s new Taskforce

DGA Admin

Recently the Government established a Data Availability & Use Taskforce (“Taskforce”) within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The purpose of the Taskforce is to develop the Government’s response to the Productivity Commission’s Final Report into Data Availability & Use (“PC Final Report”).

The Taskforce invited DGA to a special Round Table held on 2 June 2017 to discuss the PC Final Report. The aim of the Round Table was to assist the Taskforce in digesting the PC Final Report and to have an open discussion about the Productivity Commissioner’s 41 Recommendations.

The Round Table was very constructive, with DGA members given the opportunity to discuss a range of issues relating to the Productivity Commissioner’s recommendations, including the underlying complexities of the Recommendations and the potential impact on industry. In particular, DGA and its members discussed the issues and concerns relating to the following:

Comprehensive Consumer Right

Definition of Consumer Data

National Interest Datasets

Accredited Release Authorities

National Data Custodian

Notification of Sharing and Trading Data

During the Round Table, it was stressed that it will be essential, in considering any proposed laws for the regulation of data, the nature of the commercial risks to business and to assess whether:

the benefit to the consumers outweigh the cost to businesses;

investment into data and innovation will be undermined; and

the additional regulatory burden is the most effective and efficient mechanism to achieve the desired result.

DGA believes that a light touch government regulatory framework combined with a robust self- regulatory framework should be adopted to provide the necessary benchmarks and standards for private sector data sharing.

Data Governance Australia

The Data Governance Australia (DGA) is a not-for-profit association founded in 2016 in order to establish industry standards and bench marks around the collection, use and management of data in Australia.